As reported by Catherine Thompson in the Waterloo Region Record, It’ll cost about $8.6 million to rid the soil and groundwater of contaminants at the former Kitchener, Ontario Frame site.

The huge industrial site at Homer Watson Boulevard and Bleams Road has been undergoing cleanup for the past three years. The soil and groundwater were contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds, metals, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), contaminants that are often found at former industrial sites.

The former Kitchener Frame Site (Photo Credit: Philip Walker/Record staff)

The city and the developers — Gary Ball and Marty Pathak — are keen to see the site redeveloped, said Rob Morgan, the City of Kitchener’s co-ordinator of development of former industrial sites. The site of the auto parts plant variously known as Budd Canada, ThyssenKrupp Budd Canada and Kitchener Frame, has been vacant since 2009.

Redevelopment of the sprawling 32-hectare site will give a big boost to the city’s supply of industrial land, Morgan said. About 16 hectares are slated industrial, 10 hectares are retail and 1.5 hectares are office. Another four hectares will be used for things like roads and storm water management.

“It’s much-needed land,” Morgan said. “Kitchener doesn’t have a lot of vacant industrial land left to offer.” There’s a couple of parcels, on Shirley Avenue and Strasburg Road, but not much else, he said.

The former Kitchener Frame site would be the biggest property ever to apply for the program, Morgan said.

Under the program, a developer cleans up a site and redevelops it. The new development generates far more taxes than the vacant land had. The city and region hand over the additional tax revenue to the developer for a set number of years, to repay the cost of the environmental cleanup.

The site now has an assessed value of $8 million, and generates about $108,000 in property taxes a year, split roughly 40-60 between the city and the Region of Waterloo. Once it’s cleaned up and redeveloped, it’s expected to have an assessed value of around $112 million, and generate $2.2 million in municipal property taxes.

“It’s a great program,” Morgan said. In exchange for foregoing the increased taxes for a certain number of years, the city gets vacant land cleaned up and converted to a productive use that generates more taxes and jobs.

“These lands are sitting dormant, contaminated, sometimes for many years. As a resident I’d rather see it cleaned up and earning money for the tax base.”

The Kitchener Frame site will be split into 11 different parcels from 1.3 to 10 hectares. Kitchener doesn’t expect to see the first new development on the site until about 2020, and development could continue for the next 10 or 15 years beyond that.

Morgan thinks it’s likely the property will be developed well before then, though. “They’ve got a lot of interest in that property. It’s a great location, because of its proximity to the 401; you’ve got a lot of variety in the lots; Kitchener has a strong manufacturing base, and we’ve got a lot of skilled workers.”

City staff are recommending that Kitchener council approve the application, which must also be approved by regional council, likely in June.